Note on a Passage in the Gorgias of Plato

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NOTES.

Note on a Passage in the Gorgias of Plato.
In the Gorgias, p. 497 A, the following passage occurs:

SO. Ovk apa to \aipciv early ev irparreiv ovbe . to aviaadtu Kanais ', &are
€T€pov yiyverat to rjdv tov ctyaSov.

KAA. Ovk 018' arra ow^tfei, S> Saxcparer.

2Q. Oicr6a, dXX aKKifci, %> KaXXiieXeiy. kcu irpoidt y en els to epirpoo-dev,
on ix a>v Xijpeir, tv elorjs ws o-o(pos &v fie vovdeTeis. ob% Sp.a oi\jrav re eieaoTos
fjjJMv irenavrai (cat Spa rfiopevos 8ia tov irlveiv ',

KAA. Ovk 018a ot» Xeyeis.

The difficulty in this passage lies in the clause ore ex wv Xijp«r of
the second pijo-is of Sokrates. Remove these words from their
place in the sentence and you have a clear and appropriate sense :
" This is pretending, Kallikles ; you know well enough. Yes, and
keep right on a while longer and you will know how wise a man
you are who try to set me right." Xip6l6i — eh to epnpoo-dev here
means, as the context shows, and as Dr. Thompson well renders,
"Answer a few more questions." Now, as the phrase Sri e^ow \tjpets
stands, on cannot be the conjunction of indirect discourse, for some
word, Xeyav, iwoKpivopevos or the like, would be required for it to
depend upon ; nor can it be the relative Sri, and to give it the
force of ' because ' is to introduce a reason where none is required
and where too it would be utterly misplaced.

Three solutions of the difficulty, and so far as I know, only three,
have been proposed. 1. To strike the words out altogether. 2.
To alter the distribution of the dialogue by giving the words from
Kul irpotSi to vovdeTeis inclusive to Kallikles, on the ground that Sn
ex<ov Xrjpets comes more appropriately from him. 3. To transfer
the words to the second prjo-is of Kallikles, substituting ex av Mp"?

for Xeyeir.

To the first Dr. Woolsey reasonably objects " That Sn exwv Xr/ptk,
a choice Attic expression, has not the air of a gloss, and it is not
easy to say what it is a gloss upon."

To the second Dr. Thompson objects that " Even so the clause
on exav \r)pe~is is in the way : nor is there much point in the next

NOTES. 357

clause, lv dSjjs, as coming from Callicles. In the mouth of Socrates
it is an apt retort to ovk old' arra o-oobi&i, as if he had said, ' You
blame me Sia to o-o<pi£eo-8ai, answer a few more questions and you
will discover that you are no o-o<p6s." And Dr. Woolsey says : "As
Callicles wishes to break off the discourse, npoWi els roGpirpoo-Sev is
not what he would say."

There remains the third proposition, which Dr. Thompson seems
inclined to adopt, thinking the phrase " comes more naturally from
Callicles." But is there no other place nearer hand to which the
words may be transferred ? And can they not be retained in the
pijo-K of Sokrates ? I venture to answer these questions in the
affirmative. Why not place these troublesome words after vovderch ?
on could then be taken as the conjunction of indirect discourse,
dependent upon the idea of saying implied in vovBerels. In this
case the conjunction would have the function of the inverted
commas in English, and the subject of A/jpeir would be Sokrates,
not Kallikles. The sense would be : "Answer a few more ques-
tions and you will know what wisdom is yours who try to set me
right by saying ' you are talking nonsense.' " Does this sense suit
the context? Dr. Woolsey says: "vovffereis can only point at the
advice given by Callicles to Socrates," on pp. 484-486. Doubtless
there is an allusion to that advice ; but subsequently in 488A, just
before beginning his " dialectical attack " upon the position of
Kallikles that natural and conventional justice were different things,

Sokrates says : o-v ovv, &aTTep Ijp^a) vovderelv pt, pr/ aVooTyy, dXX ' iKav&s pot
evSeigai n eon tovto 6 fjriTTjStvTeov poi, /cat Tiva Tponov KTt)o-aipr)v hv airo,

and again, in 489D, Sokrates says : <ai, & davpdo-te, npaorepov pe npoSi-
Sao-Ke, tva pfj djro(poiTrjcra> napa o-ov. This is Sokratic irony, of course,
but Kallikles, though his reply to this last (dpaveia, & Si>Kpares)
shows he felt the irony, still keeps up the superior tone of the prac-
tical man of the world in the presence of the pedantic philosopher.
Of what sort then was the i/ovoen/o-ts of Kallikles in response to the
above-quoted request of Sokrates ? In 489B he says : oiroo-lv

avrjp 011 iravaerai <p\vapav. elirt poi, & Zdxparts, ofi/c alo-\vv€i, TtjKiKOVTOS
&v, 6v6para drfpevav. In 490C : 2tTia Ae'y«ty (cat irora /cat larpovs /cat <f>\v-
apias. 490E : ffota inoSfjpaTa <f>\vapeis (X""" > an< l just below <W del
ravT-a Aeyeis, S> Saxparts. In 491E : i>s (jSw et! In 492C he winds Up

his tirade against temperance thus : rpvcpfj k<u d/coAao-ta /cat iXevdepla,

eav iniKovpiav %XV> T0 *" T eoni/ dpcrr) re /cat evSaipovla ' ra 8e aAAa ravr eort
ra KaWayrrio-para, ra irapa <\>vmv o-vv&qpara, dvdp&mav (jiXvapia /cat ovSevos
a£ta. 494D : £>s aroiTos el, a> SaKpares, /cat drexvas br}pr]y6pos. 494E :

358 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY.

ovk aurxyvei els roiavra aycoi/, g> 2atKpaT€s t tovs Xoyovs. Finally, in the

present passage : ovk old' Srra o-ocpi&i, & 2a>Kpares. In all of these
cases the tone is the same ; <j>\vapia, <p\vapeiv, or words of similar
import are the only replies that come to the lips of Kallikles when
pressed by the arguments of his opponent ; they form the sub-
stance of the vovderrjo-ts, "the setting right " which Sokrates had
asked of him. Sokrates had already rebuked Kallikles, but had
in doing so alluded only to the peculiarities of his attitude at the
moment ; now the rebuke applies to the general tone assumed by
Kallikles throughout the argument, and in what way could this, in
the light of the expressions I have cited, be better done than by

saying tv elhjjs a>s <ro(p6s &v pe vovderets 6Vs ex a > v Xi;p«r ?

Dr.Thompson remarks also, that the question oi>x Spa k. t. X.," comes
in abruptly." " We should have expected," he says, " Upoapi 8r),
or some such prefatory formula." A particle of transition, it seems
to me, would answer the purpose quite as well, and I suggest the
insertion of dXX' before ovx Spa. Compare 494E : *H yap <r'y<» Sya

ivravSa, & yevvaxe, i) inelvos or av (prj aviSrjv ovra robs x a *P 0VTas > <* ITa> s Sv
Xalpa>o-iv, eiiSalpovas elvat, Kal prj Stopi^rjrai t&v rjbov&v OTrotai ayaBal Kai
KaKal ; a X X' m Kai vvv Xeye, iroTtpov qbrjs uvai to axiro fjdii Kal ayaffov K. t. X.

Here, after rebuking Kallikles for the charge he had made, Sokrates
resumes the discussion, introducing his question by the use of dXXd.

Just below, 495 A : oi lolwv 6p65>s noiS> oft- (yi>, eijrep noia> tovto, ofte av,
dXX' & paKiipu, ciBpu pr) ov tovto fl to dyadov, to iravras x ai -P* lv > "■• T - ^-

Here also d\\d introduces the resumption of the interrupted argu-
ment. May not the same word have been used in the passage
before us ? Supposing that the sentence originally ran dXX' ot>x
dpa k. t. X., it is not difficult to account for the disappearance of
dXX' ; aa might easily be mistaken for M, and some would-be cor-
rector, reading, as he supposed, dp' oi>x Spa k. t. X., would quite
naturally strike out Sp as tautological. For these reasons I sug-
gest the reading : Kal irpoidl y in els to ipnpoo-dev, tva el8rjs £>s o-o<p6s av
pe vovSztcXs 8n ix a>v Xijpeir. dXX' oi>x Spa bity&v tc eKaoros r)pS>v iriiravrai
Kal Spa r)S6pevos Sid tou iriveiv ;

W. A. Lamberton.